Like many visitors to Durango, Klaudia Birkner has visited
Durango a number of times over the past 10 years. But she’s
not a typical tourist. Because Birkner has been blind since she was
16 and has a rare disease that affects her spinal cord, she comes
to ski with Durango’s Adaptive Sports Association, a group that
strives “to give disability a possibility.”

Birkner had never skied when she could see, so in 1992,
she learned to ski by following the voices of ASA volunteer instructors.
She used poles with pontoons attached to the ends for extra support.
Over the years, Birkner gained national success as an adaptive racer
and was a medallist in the U.S. Disabled Alpine National Championships.

Birkner says her experiences as a skier with disabilities
bolstered her self-confidence because when she used a wheelchair or
a white cane, she was always attached to something or somebody. But
when skiing with ASA, she was “only attached by voice.”

“It gave me freedom that I thought I would never
have,” Birkner says. “Skiing opened up the world for me…every
time I went to ski, I felt more confident. It poured over into every
area of my life.”

Birkner isn’t alone: since its inception in 1983,
thousands of people with disabilities have learned or relearned to
ski with ASA. The mission of ASA is “to enhance the self-esteem
and physical well-being of people with disabilities through participation
in sports and outdoor recreational experiences regardless of individual
financial limitations.”

ASA reaches that goal with the help of approximately
200 local volunteers who undergo extensive training before donating
an average of 14,000 hours each year. Durango Mountain Resort pitches
in with in-kind donations – such as lift tickets – that
reach about $190,000 each year.

“I consider volunteers to be an essential element
of what makes our program such a success,” says Tim Kroes, executive
director of ASA. “People get involved because they truly care,
and their passion shows in everything they do.”

ASA was co-founded by Dave Spencer, a traditional ski
instructor at Durango Mountain Resort (then Purgatory) who lost a
leg to cancer. As legend has it, a woman – who had recently
had a leg of her own amputated – was sitting in the lodge at
the base of the mountain when she spied Spencer skiing. She asked
him to teach her to ski on one leg, and ASA was born.

Sadly, Spencer lost his battle with cancer, but his
organization – and his legend – lives on.
Pam Leisle, who has continued to volunteer for ASA since it started,
says Spencer was “just a good skier – not a good disabled
skier but a good skier. He liked the steeps, he liked the deeps and
he liked the bumps. He was fun.”

Spencer had hoped ASA would offer activities year-round,
and in 1997, that dream was realized. ASA’s summer activities
in Durango include kayaking, hiking, fishing, rafting and canoeing.

Mike Sammuli, a Californian who broke his neck in a
car accident at 16, learned to ski with ASA. He says he likes the
group so much that he has returned for seven years, not just in winter
but also in summer, to try white-water rafting and ASA’s jeep
trips. His taste for adaptive activities even led him to try extreme
sports like skydiving.

“I realized the challenges aren’t as big
anymore,” Sammuli says.

Like many ASA participants, Sammuli says one of the
best things about ASA is the people.
“You have to lift people, and they have to put their arms around
you. It’s an immediate icebreaker. It’s all about the
human connection,” explains Margy Dudley, who volunteers two
days a week during the ski season.

She says the group also knows how to have fun together.
“People fall in their wheelchairs and they’re not hurt
and we laugh and they love it.”

Volunteers are trained to learn about the different
types of adaptive equipment students can use. For example, students
with lower back injuries can sit in a “mono-ski” –
a bucket-like chair mounted on one ski – and use short outriggers
to help balance and turn. Students with disabilities such as cerebral
palsy use a “bi-ski,” a chair mounted on two skis, which
allows them to turn by moving their head. “Four-trackers,”
or skiers who leave four tracks, ski upright while using poles with
outriggers for added control. Additionally, some volunteers use tethers
to help with speed control.

But the students agree that the gear available at the
ASA is not what makes it special. Pam Albertson, who uses a wheelchair
because of a spinal injury she sustained in a 1992 hiking accident
in Arizona, says that when she has skied with other adaptive programs,
the groups have approached the lessons “as a business.”

In contrast, she says, ASA volunteers spend the entire
day with their students; eat lunch with them; and often “party”
with them at night. In fact, some return students stay in the homes
of volunteers, who drive them to the slopes.

“Everybody who comes here feels that ASA is a
family,” Albertson says.

Volunteer Erica Pray agrees. “They come here
as students and come back as friends.”
This year, many students/friends will return to Durango to celebrate
ASA’s 20th anniversary at the annual Dave Spencer Ski Classic,
which will take place the first weekend in March.
“We should be able to pull out all the stops and anticipate
an extra-special event,” Kroes says.

Reservations for ASA programs are required, preferably
48 hours in advance. Skiing with ASA costs $80 for an adult, which
includes a private lesson, equipment and a lift ticket, or $60 for
children 12 and under. As for the summer activities, rafting is $20;
canoeing is $20; sea kayaking is $20; hiking is $10; and fishing is
$15.

But scholarships are available, and over half of ASA
students receive financial assistance from ASA. Thanks to “generous
community donations and support,” no student has ever been turned
away due to financial restrictions, according to Kroes.

“It’s not just about sport – it’s
a catalyst for people to discover what they’re capable of,”
Leisle says.

For example, Birkner went on to become a public speaker
and author. But what’s more, she used some of her own stem cells
for eye surgery. As a result, she regained some of her vision; when
she returned to Durango last season to ski with ASA, she was finally
able to see the mountains and people she’d known for 10 years.

“I wish I could get more people to know they
can do this,” Birkner says.